"Of all the unimportant things in the world, football is the most important"

Sunday, June 26, 2016

Absolute boredom

I thought that now that we have reached the knock-out stages of Euro 2016 matches would get more dramatic and interesting.
How wrong I was...
When I sat to watch Wales-Northern Ireland I was not expecting much, but got even less than I bargained for in a match where neither team seemed to have quality to break the defenses, and only an own-goal gave Wales the victory to make it to the quarterfinals.
After this bore, expectations were nevertheless high for the next match: Croatia-Portugal!
But this was even a greater bore; an insult to paint drying, which is far more interesting than what both these teams showed. It took them 116 minutes to make a shot on target, and when finally done, it gave Portugal the victory. I drank many beers to forget these two dreadful hours of my life.
The match compares to another absolute bore, Ukraine-Switzerland in the World Cup of 2006, and probably is worse, since this is apparently the first match in a major tournament since 1966 without shots on target.
After big expectations, I am happy that Croatia is going home, but must now live with the terrible knowledge that a Poland-Portugal quarterfinal is awaiting, and I will have to find something better to do, such as watching paint dry.